This invention relates to a fuse module to be assembled into an electrical connection box used for, e.g., an automotive vehicle and the like.
A known electrical connection box has a fuse mounting section 301 which is formed on an outer surface of a casing 300 and in which a multitude of fuses are mounted as shown in FIG. 12. Further, a fuse in which connection terminals 312 connected with the opposite ends of a fusing element 311 are covered by an insulating member 314 except their leading ends as shown in FIG. 13 is known as a fuse 310 to be mounted in the fuse mounting section 301.
Such a fuse 310 is mounted in the fuse mounting section 301 by inserting the connection terminals 312 of the fuse 310 into forked inserting portions 303 of tab terminals 302 formed at the leading ends of a busbar provided in the fuse mounting section 310 as shown in FIG. 14.
In recent years, automotive vehicles have been demanded to have comfortable equipments while being demanded to improve its comfort in a passenger's compartment. In order to simultaneously satisfy these contradictory demands, electrical connection boxes used in automotive vehicles need to be smaller and more lightweight while circuits for the comfortable equipments are on the increase.
However, as the comfortable equipments increase as described above, the number of fuses for protecting the equipments from an overcurrent tends to increase. Further, the insulating member 314 of the fuse projects above the tab terminals 302 as shown in FIG. 14 to thereby make a conventional fuse mounting structure bulky. This hinders the electrical connection boxes from becoming smaller and more lightweight.